European History

This review is from: The Revolution of 1905 and Russia's Jews (Jewish Culture and Contexts) (Hardcover)
This is a very "meaty" book, not for the casual reader, that goes far beyond the 1905 Revolution. Owing to the wealth of information presented, I touch on only a few subjects, and sometimes relate them to other incidents in various contexts outside the immediate purview of this book.
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This book begins with a good description of Polish tales, such as the ones surrounding the Krak, Wanda, Popiel, etc. It affords a broad sweep of Polish history.

Consider the late 1700's. Although Poland's enemies were soon to erase her from the map of Europe, the Poles put belated major internal reforms into practice. Did you know, for instance, that the Poles virtually invented systematic public schooling? The author writes: "The first ministry of public education in the world was created in Poland in 1773." (p. 36)
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The author begins with the situation facing the three parts of Partitioned Poland. He cites British Prime Minister Asquith (afterwards Earl of Oxford and Asquith). The Briton recounted the brutalities of the Prussians against the local Poles. Step-by-step, the Poles were not allowed to use the Polish language--eventually the children had to pray only in German. In 1902, more than half the Polish schoolchildren went on a strike that lasted nearly a whole year. Many of them were savagely beaten, and their parents faced arrest and imprisonment. (p. 69).
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This review is from: Balkanized Europe: A study in political analysis and reconstruction, (Paperback)
The author examines the numerous nations that had arisen after WWI, and other peoples (e.g., the Slovenes) who had not become separate nations. He does not seem to use the term "Balkanized" in a pejorative sense.

The author is not sympathetic to Poles. He repeatedly regards them (and cites those who agree with him), as too emotional and quarrelsome a people to acquire or keep a state.

Butler alludes to the Litvaks, and the tsarist Russian policies designed to exacerbate Jewish-gentile conflicts, as follows: "The problem of the Jew in countries like Russia and Poland cannot be stated in terms of Western Europe. It is conditioned, not primarily by religious feeling, but by economic conditions...The official Russian policy in recent years of concentrating the Jews in the Western provinces led to a large influx of Russian Jews into Poland (general called `Lithuanian Jews' [Litvaks] though they do not for the most part come from Lithuania), who compete with the original Polish Jews, and have markedly lowered the standard of living...They held, and hold, four-fifths of the trade of the country in their hands, and control a large proportion--how large is not easy from the available statistics to determine--of the capital invested in Polish industry." (pp. 124-125).
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Boswell was a research fellow in Polish at the University of Liverpool. Owing to its scope, I can only touch on a few items.

Even when subject to the Partitions, the Poles continued to affirm human liberty: "In fact, Poland, in 1794, was the first nation outside Western Europe to declare all its peasants free. This was not done in Prussia til 1823, in Austria till 1848, and in Russia till 1861." (p. 84).
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A first-hand account that gives special attention to the author's experience among predominantly non-Jewish partisans in Soviet Russia, where he confronted anti-Semitism while facing a common enemy.
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This work is an impressive collection of information about how Poland's Jews had supported Poland in the past, especially in the armed forces. Most of the book consists of alphabetically ordered lists of thousands of names of Polish officers in the WWII Polish military forces.
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On Polonophile Herbert Hoover. Insights into Capitalists Supporting Communists,
This work details some of the deeds Herbert Hoover did for Poland. The reader soon realizes that they included both charitable and political acts, and were part of a long-term Poland-Hoover friendship.
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